EDC 102 F08 Fnl Proj Eval Conner C Research Question: How do extracurricular activities influence delinquent behavior in students? Contributed by: Connor Capizzano
Reputable Newspaper:
1) According to Tom Blackwell of the Canadian National Post, young men who participate in rigorous physical activity are more likely to become juvenile delinquents. The need to research the issue came about when Professor Guy Faulkner discussed decreasing street crimes by supplying high schools with more extracurricular programs. The article, "Study Links Sports to Delinquent Behavior: May Promote Aggression in Boys: U of T Research", Canadian researchers at the University of Toronto suggest having troubled teenage boys participate in sports will do little to change their anti-social behavior. Scientists in the study believe that there is a correlation to playing sports and delinquent behavior since they both emphasize violence and masculine ideas. In order for student athletes to benefit from interscholastic sports, researchers suggest that athletic programs should be offered as a broader program that encourages good behavior. Other experts recommended that promoting organized and orderly teams can help turn around deviant teens. By channeling the aggression and motivation students share for sports in a more healthy way such as with referees and coaches, students will learn to positive role models and discipline themselves in the process.
I rather enjoyed reading this article because I could personally relate to the experience being studied. The idea of the article was that extracurricular sports only increased levels of delinquency in boys, but the deviant behavior would decrease if the sports were organized and regulated. Since I did track and field for four years in high school, I was constantly training under the supervision of my coach and team captains so I would not go astray. Due to the guidance, I modeled myself into the people I look up to and turned my angry, competitive self into a well-disciplined athlete who was competing against the stop watch (not the opponent). If you were to take those supervisors away from me, I am sure I would not have learned anything from sports except how to punch someone in the face. I found the article to be very intriguing because I can see how sports and delinquent behavior share many similar characteristics such as masculine ideals. Yet, it is understandable how students can come away with a set of morals if the program is maintained properly. Since the article was only so long, I am very curious to know whether the data from the study was gathered from students who participated in neighborhood sports rather than leagues and teams. If so, it would explain for the increase in delinquency for those students who played sports.
Post, T. B. N. (2007, February 13). Study links sports to delinquent behaviour: May promote aggression in boys: U of T research. National Post (f/k/a The Financial Post) (Canada). Retrieved December 1, 2008, from LexisNexis
Professional Journal:
2) In the journal article "Socialization via Interscholastic Athletics: Its Effects on Delinquency," authors Daniel and Donna Landers of the Pennsylvania State University tried to find a correlation between athletics and delinquent behavior through experimentation. The school system acknowledges interscholastic athletics for their contributions to the student body such as sportsmanship, ability to cooperate, and persistence. Also, the school system realizes that without athletics, most students would rebel against the school, dropout, and become more violent. In order to test the claim that interscholastic athletics have a huge impact on kids, Landers and Landers found 521 male students and broke them up into the following four groups: 1) athletes only, 2) service-leadership only, 3) both athletes and service-leadership, and 4) neither athlete or service-leadership. With the 521 students categorized, their names were taken to the town courthouse where the subjects' court records were examined for delinquent-related acts. Once the experiment was completed, Landers and Landers noticed that the 40 of the 87 delinquent acts were committed by students who participated in neither athletics or service-leadership. Furthermore, the number of delinquent acts caused by the athlete only and service-leadership only groups were very low. As a result, it can be concluded that the lessons learned by participating in athletics can be acquired in other student groups in school.
Being a student who participated in athletics year round and service-leadership events, I found the article to be very intriguing and very easy to relate with. Since I experienced both worlds, I feel that interscholastic sports play a large role in students developing discipline. Unlike being forced to do homework, students make the choice to participate in the athletic program, which causes them to work for the results they want to see. Yet, I also went to school because I understood the importance of an education and I loved learning most every topic that was ever presented to me. I felt Landers and Landers made a very wise decision when they checked with the town courthouse on the criminal records of the students because the students might lie if they were given a questionnaire. Finally, I found the results to be very fascinating because they imply that students with the least amount of free time are less likely to participate in delinquent behavior. For instance, 40 of 87 incidents were caused by non-athlete/service-leadership, 18 of 87 by the athlete only group, 16 of 87 by the service-leadership only group, and 13 of 87 by the athlete/service-leadership group.
Landers, D. M., & Landers, D. M. (1978). Socialization Via Interscholastic Athletics: Its Effects on Delinquency. Sociology of Education, 51(4), 299-303. (Retrieved November 28, 2008 at Online Source)
3) According to the writers at ScienceDaily.com, students participating in extracurricular activities have decreased levels of risky behavior and delinquency. Based on information from the article "Can Involvement In Extra-curricular Activities Help Prevent Juvenile Delinquency?," various extracurricular activities have different effects on men and women. For instance, participation in sports decreased delinquency rates in females but had little effect on males. On the other hand, other activities, such as church and after-school community activities, significantly decreased delinquent behavior in men, while they had less of an effect on females. Researchers also discovered that there was a positive correlation between student's views of their school and their risk of taking part in delinquent or risky behavior. Students who view their school environment as positive are less likely to participate in delinquent acts, while students with negative feelings have an increased likelihood to do wrong. Finally, the study showed evidence that too much involvement in extracurricular activities could increase levels of delinquency and risky behavior. Since the student would be too occupied in their activities, the lack of family time would allow for a greater influence of peer pressure. In the end, researchers agreed that the data shows students need to have a balanced schedule in order to have a healthy life.
This article was by far my most favorite article that I research for my topic. I think made the study riveting was the fact that the research was gender-specific, meaning they were detecting differences between men and women participating in the same activity. After reading all of the other articles, it was fascinating to find a study that went beyond the normal list of activities that effect delinquency and see the issue from a physiological point of view. I thought it was really cool how the article explained women who participated in sports were less likely to be deviant while there was no major effect on men. Since the men participating in the athletics programs were not experiencing decreased levels of delinquency, it could be related to the article I found in the Canadian National Post. In the article, it talked about how sports only seemed to increase the likelihood of a student performing deviant acts, which could happen to these male athletes. Overall, I believe my favorite part of the entire article is at the end where it talks about too much involvement can cause an increase in deviant behavior. I love it because it reminds me of the song titled "I'm No Superman," which is what I constantly tried to be in high school. Every other day, you could find me either running nine miles down the road, playing the piano, running the National Honor Society, or performing community service. At the end of each day, I would collapse just to wake up to do it all again the next day. As much as I wanted to be able to do everything, I realized I was not having fun and I was not as social as I used to be. Therefore, I dropped a few activities in order to keep my sanity, and I still follow this trend today. Even when I was taking a course on meditation, the last chapter we discussed was about balance in the universe so I found it amazing how most everything comes back to balance in one way or another.
Northeastern University (2008, March 23). Can Involvement In Extra-curricular Activities Help Prevent Juvenile Delinquency?. ScienceDaily. Editorial:
4) Written by Elizabeth J. Swasey, the article "School-Based Programs Are an Ineffective Response to Gang Violence" is an opinionated article that discusses the inability of crime-prevention programs to decrease delinquent behavior in kids. Over the years, schools have been enforcing crime-prevention programs that are designed for at-risk youth, students who dropped out of school or committed a crime. Yet, in recent times, these after school activities have started off with good intentions and ended in chaos. For example, the after school program called Midnight Madness, a midnight basketball event, started off with two teams playing a game but ended with street brawls and gun fights. Even though the programs do not show promising results, they are still labeled as a "successful crime-prevention program" because the event has enrollment. Due to the government's idea of success, the author discusses how Congress conducted an evaluation to determine the effectiveness of the Department of Justice's crime prevention division. The completed evaluation stated that crime-prevention programs were "not likely to reduce crime" and they will most likely "increase risk for delinquency." (Swasey 2001) Swasey makes the argument that the United States is spending $3 billion dollars a year for crime-prevention on a program that has been labeled as a failure.
As biased as the article was, it prove to be a great source of information on the issue. Even though it is extremely beneficial for me to find articles that show extracurricular activities being a positive factor in the schools, I did not take an exact stand on the topic. Therefore, I see myself as a reporter and I should be reporting on all sides of the issue in order for the class to have all of the necessary information. In my opinion, I believe it is much easier to see one terrible thing happen than see all of the good something brought. For example, I don't believe that a school would continue to host an event, such as Midnight Madness, if it ended in disaster every time. On the issue of the programs being successful, I feel that enrollment is a key factor for any success for a program. If no students were to attend the basketball competition, there would be a greater chance that students would be committing crimes and taking part in risky behavior. Yet, by attending the event to either beat someone in a one-on-one game or to have fun, students can influence their friends to come to the event and it can start a chain reaction of people visiting. Although I stand against the author on most topics she has brought up, I do agree with her on the ineffectiveness of the programs when they were evaluated. If the government and school systems want to prevent crime, they cannot just dump money on an area and put on an event. I believe more research studies should be conducted so we can properly aim are expenses in the crime-prevention division.
Swasey, E. J. (2001, January 1). School-Based Programs Are an Ineffective Response to Gang Violence. Retrieved from Gale Cengage Learning
ERIC:
5) Siu Kwong Wong of the Journal of Youth and Adolescence examines the relationship between extracurricular activities and delinquent behavior in the research article "The Effects of Adolescent Activities on Delinquency: A Differential Involvement Approach." In the article, the author discusses the importance of Travis Hirschi's involvement hypothesis, which states that an involved person is simply too busy to find the time to become deviant. During her examination of the hypothesis, Wong identified that the strengthening of social bonds and delinquent association were the mediating factors of how delinquency was affected by involvement. To test her theory, Wong took a sample size of 578 Grade 5 - 12 students and asked them how much time they spent per week on various activities. Furthermore, the subjects were given a questionnaire that asked the participants how many delinquent acts they had committed in the past 12 months. After reviewing the data, it showed that there was a strong correlation between the number of delinquent acts increasing with age. When looked at more closely, it was evident that studying or doing homework and spending time with the family decreased delinquency, while dating and spending time with friends increased the likelihood of risky behavior.
I was very surprised and amazed by the results presented in the article. Based on my own experience, I was not surprised by the idea that a student doing homework would be less likely to be delinquent, but I fell off my chair when I saw that dating causes delinquent acts. At first the idea that going out to the movies and getting dinner caused a person to slash the tires of a car to be pretty funny. After reading the conclusion and the tables, dating causes students to weaken their attachment to school, parents, and peers. As a result of being less strict and having a choice, the students tend to disregard the law more often and perform delinquent acts. Coming from a future scientist, I thoroughly enjoyed how much information was gathered on the various activities students took part in. Besides showing that spending time with friends was a contributor of delinquency, the article provided information about what types of delinquent acts were more common from participating in the activity. Finally, I found it quite interesting that students doing nothing or were bored had a much greater chance of committing violent offenses. This particular result can open up a completely new research topic such as if humans are inherently violent.
Wong, S. K. (2005). The Effects of Adolescent Activities on Delinquency: A Differential Involvement Approach. New York, New York: Springer. (Retrieved November 29, 2008, from Online Source, ERIC No. EJ747853)
Research Question: How do extracurricular activities influence delinquent behavior in students?
Contributed by: Connor Capizzano
Reputable Newspaper:
1) According to Tom Blackwell of the Canadian National Post, young men who participate in rigorous physical activity are more likely to become juvenile delinquents. The need to research the issue came about when Professor Guy Faulkner discussed decreasing street crimes by supplying high schools with more extracurricular programs. The article, "Study Links Sports to Delinquent Behavior: May Promote Aggression in Boys: U of T Research", Canadian researchers at the University of Toronto suggest having troubled teenage boys participate in sports will do little to change their anti-social behavior. Scientists in the study believe that there is a correlation to playing sports and delinquent behavior since they both emphasize violence and masculine ideas. In order for student athletes to benefit from interscholastic sports, researchers suggest that athletic programs should be offered as a broader program that encourages good behavior. Other experts recommended that promoting organized and orderly teams can help turn around deviant teens. By channeling the aggression and motivation students share for sports in a more healthy way such as with referees and coaches, students will learn to positive role models and discipline themselves in the process.
I rather enjoyed reading this article because I could personally relate to the experience being studied. The idea of the article was that extracurricular sports only increased levels of delinquency in boys, but the deviant behavior would decrease if the sports were organized and regulated. Since I did track and field for four years in high school, I was constantly training under the supervision of my coach and team captains so I would not go astray. Due to the guidance, I modeled myself into the people I look up to and turned my angry, competitive self into a well-disciplined athlete who was competing against the stop watch (not the opponent). If you were to take those supervisors away from me, I am sure I would not have learned anything from sports except how to punch someone in the face. I found the article to be very intriguing because I can see how sports and delinquent behavior share many similar characteristics such as masculine ideals. Yet, it is understandable how students can come away with a set of morals if the program is maintained properly. Since the article was only so long, I am very curious to know whether the data from the study was gathered from students who participated in neighborhood sports rather than leagues and teams. If so, it would explain for the increase in delinquency for those students who played sports.
Post, T. B. N. (2007, February 13). Study links sports to delinquent behaviour: May promote aggression in boys: U of T research. National Post (f/k/a The Financial Post) (Canada). Retrieved December 1, 2008, from LexisNexis
Professional Journal:
2) In the journal article "Socialization via Interscholastic Athletics: Its Effects on Delinquency," authors Daniel and Donna Landers of the Pennsylvania State University tried to find a correlation between athletics and delinquent behavior through experimentation. The school system acknowledges interscholastic athletics for their contributions to the student body such as sportsmanship, ability to cooperate, and persistence. Also, the school system realizes that without athletics, most students would rebel against the school, dropout, and become more violent. In order to test the claim that interscholastic athletics have a huge impact on kids, Landers and Landers found 521 male students and broke them up into the following four groups: 1) athletes only, 2) service-leadership only, 3) both athletes and service-leadership, and 4) neither athlete or service-leadership. With the 521 students categorized, their names were taken to the town courthouse where the subjects' court records were examined for delinquent-related acts. Once the experiment was completed, Landers and Landers noticed that the 40 of the 87 delinquent acts were committed by students who participated in neither athletics or service-leadership. Furthermore, the number of delinquent acts caused by the athlete only and service-leadership only groups were very low. As a result, it can be concluded that the lessons learned by participating in athletics can be acquired in other student groups in school.
Being a student who participated in athletics year round and service-leadership events, I found the article to be very intriguing and very easy to relate with. Since I experienced both worlds, I feel that interscholastic sports play a large role in students developing discipline. Unlike being forced to do homework, students make the choice to participate in the athletic program, which causes them to work for the results they want to see. Yet, I also went to school because I understood the importance of an education and I loved learning most every topic that was ever presented to me. I felt Landers and Landers made a very wise decision when they checked with the town courthouse on the criminal records of the students because the students might lie if they were given a questionnaire. Finally, I found the results to be very fascinating because they imply that students with the least amount of free time are less likely to participate in delinquent behavior. For instance, 40 of 87 incidents were caused by non-athlete/service-leadership, 18 of 87 by the athlete only group, 16 of 87 by the service-leadership only group, and 13 of 87 by the athlete/service-leadership group.
Landers, D. M., & Landers, D. M. (1978). Socialization Via Interscholastic Athletics: Its Effects on Delinquency. Sociology of Education, 51(4), 299-303. (Retrieved November 28, 2008 at Online Source)
3) According to the writers at ScienceDaily.com, students participating in extracurricular activities have decreased levels of risky behavior and delinquency. Based on information from the article "Can Involvement In Extra-curricular Activities Help Prevent Juvenile Delinquency?," various extracurricular activities have different effects on men and women. For instance, participation in sports decreased delinquency rates in females but had little effect on males. On the other hand, other activities, such as church and after-school community activities, significantly decreased delinquent behavior in men, while they had less of an effect on females. Researchers also discovered that there was a positive correlation between student's views of their school and their risk of taking part in delinquent or risky behavior. Students who view their school environment as positive are less likely to participate in delinquent acts, while students with negative feelings have an increased likelihood to do wrong. Finally, the study showed evidence that too much involvement in extracurricular activities could increase levels of delinquency and risky behavior. Since the student would be too occupied in their activities, the lack of family time would allow for a greater influence of peer pressure. In the end, researchers agreed that the data shows students need to have a balanced schedule in order to have a healthy life.
This article was by far my most favorite article that I research for my topic. I think made the study riveting was the fact that the research was gender-specific, meaning they were detecting differences between men and women participating in the same activity. After reading all of the other articles, it was fascinating to find a study that went beyond the normal list of activities that effect delinquency and see the issue from a physiological point of view. I thought it was really cool how the article explained women who participated in sports were less likely to be deviant while there was no major effect on men. Since the men participating in the athletics programs were not experiencing decreased levels of delinquency, it could be related to the article I found in the Canadian National Post. In the article, it talked about how sports only seemed to increase the likelihood of a student performing deviant acts, which could happen to these male athletes. Overall, I believe my favorite part of the entire article is at the end where it talks about too much involvement can cause an increase in deviant behavior. I love it because it reminds me of the song titled "I'm No Superman," which is what I constantly tried to be in high school. Every other day, you could find me either running nine miles down the road, playing the piano, running the National Honor Society, or performing community service. At the end of each day, I would collapse just to wake up to do it all again the next day. As much as I wanted to be able to do everything, I realized I was not having fun and I was not as social as I used to be. Therefore, I dropped a few activities in order to keep my sanity, and I still follow this trend today. Even when I was taking a course on meditation, the last chapter we discussed was about balance in the universe so I found it amazing how most everything comes back to balance in one way or another.
Northeastern University (2008, March 23). Can Involvement In Extra-curricular Activities Help Prevent Juvenile Delinquency?. ScienceDaily.
Editorial:
4) Written by Elizabeth J. Swasey, the article "School-Based Programs Are an Ineffective Response to Gang Violence" is an opinionated article that discusses the inability of crime-prevention programs to decrease delinquent behavior in kids. Over the years, schools have been enforcing crime-prevention programs that are designed for at-risk youth, students who dropped out of school or committed a crime. Yet, in recent times, these after school activities have started off with good intentions and ended in chaos. For example, the after school program called Midnight Madness, a midnight basketball event, started off with two teams playing a game but ended with street brawls and gun fights. Even though the programs do not show promising results, they are still labeled as a "successful crime-prevention program" because the event has enrollment. Due to the government's idea of success, the author discusses how Congress conducted an evaluation to determine the effectiveness of the Department of Justice's crime prevention division. The completed evaluation stated that crime-prevention programs were "not likely to reduce crime" and they will most likely "increase risk for delinquency." (Swasey 2001) Swasey makes the argument that the United States is spending $3 billion dollars a year for crime-prevention on a program that has been labeled as a failure.
As biased as the article was, it prove to be a great source of information on the issue. Even though it is extremely beneficial for me to find articles that show extracurricular activities being a positive factor in the schools, I did not take an exact stand on the topic. Therefore, I see myself as a reporter and I should be reporting on all sides of the issue in order for the class to have all of the necessary information. In my opinion, I believe it is much easier to see one terrible thing happen than see all of the good something brought. For example, I don't believe that a school would continue to host an event, such as Midnight Madness, if it ended in disaster every time. On the issue of the programs being successful, I feel that enrollment is a key factor for any success for a program. If no students were to attend the basketball competition, there would be a greater chance that students would be committing crimes and taking part in risky behavior. Yet, by attending the event to either beat someone in a one-on-one game or to have fun, students can influence their friends to come to the event and it can start a chain reaction of people visiting. Although I stand against the author on most topics she has brought up, I do agree with her on the ineffectiveness of the programs when they were evaluated. If the government and school systems want to prevent crime, they cannot just dump money on an area and put on an event. I believe more research studies should be conducted so we can properly aim are expenses in the crime-prevention division.
Swasey, E. J. (2001, January 1). School-Based Programs Are an Ineffective Response to Gang Violence. Retrieved from Gale Cengage Learning
ERIC:
5) Siu Kwong Wong of the Journal of Youth and Adolescence examines the relationship between extracurricular activities and delinquent behavior in the research article "The Effects of Adolescent Activities on Delinquency: A Differential Involvement Approach." In the article, the author discusses the importance of Travis Hirschi's involvement hypothesis, which states that an involved person is simply too busy to find the time to become deviant. During her examination of the hypothesis, Wong identified that the strengthening of social bonds and delinquent association were the mediating factors of how delinquency was affected by involvement. To test her theory, Wong took a sample size of 578 Grade 5 - 12 students and asked them how much time they spent per week on various activities. Furthermore, the subjects were given a questionnaire that asked the participants how many delinquent acts they had committed in the past 12 months. After reviewing the data, it showed that there was a strong correlation between the number of delinquent acts increasing with age. When looked at more closely, it was evident that studying or doing homework and spending time with the family decreased delinquency, while dating and spending time with friends increased the likelihood of risky behavior.
I was very surprised and amazed by the results presented in the article. Based on my own experience, I was not surprised by the idea that a student doing homework would be less likely to be delinquent, but I fell off my chair when I saw that dating causes delinquent acts. At first the idea that going out to the movies and getting dinner caused a person to slash the tires of a car to be pretty funny. After reading the conclusion and the tables, dating causes students to weaken their attachment to school, parents, and peers. As a result of being less strict and having a choice, the students tend to disregard the law more often and perform delinquent acts. Coming from a future scientist, I thoroughly enjoyed how much information was gathered on the various activities students took part in. Besides showing that spending time with friends was a contributor of delinquency, the article provided information about what types of delinquent acts were more common from participating in the activity. Finally, I found it quite interesting that students doing nothing or were bored had a much greater chance of committing violent offenses. This particular result can open up a completely new research topic such as if humans are inherently violent.
Wong, S. K. (2005). The Effects of Adolescent Activities on Delinquency: A Differential Involvement Approach. New York, New York: Springer. (Retrieved November 29, 2008, from Online Source, ERIC No. EJ747853)